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As industry begins to take off, Alberta researchers working on lab-grown meat

With industry insiders suggesting lab-grown meat will be a consumer reality sooner rather than later, advocates say Alberta has the chance to be a part of a new industry with major disruption potential

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A burger patty that gets its start in a petri dish instead of in a slaughterhouse may still seem to be the stuff of science fiction. But with industry insiders suggesting lab-grown meat will be a consumer reality sooner rather than later, advocates say Alberta has the chance to be a part of a new industry with major disruption potential.

“I really think it is inevitable that we are going to see foods produced from cell cultures on the market and changing our food supply chains,” said Edmonton-raised Isha Datar, who is globally recognized as a pioneer in the field of meat made without the use of animals (also known as cellular agriculture).

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“I think Alberta and the Prairie provinces are well positioned to do some of this work. I think we could really grow our economy here and actually diversify — like we’ve been talking about for a long time, but haven’t actually been doing.”

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In the wake of the rise in popularity of plant-based “meat” like that produced by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, some say cultured meat — real meat produced in the lab from animal cells — is the next frontier. Lab-grown meat would not only eliminate the need for animal slaughter, but proponents say it could also significantly reduce the environmental and land use impacts of traditional animal agriculture.

“There is such enormous potential in terms of sustainability,” said Datar, who recounts how she was literally laughed at when she first started talking about in-vitro meat production a decade ago, when the field was still in its infancy. “Look at how much the agriculture industry has increased productivity in a few decades. I think we have already done all we can do to get a cow to produce as much milk as possible, to get a chicken to produce as much meat as possible. I think the next logical step is to produce the food products directly and not bother with the byproduct — the animal itself.”

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Isha Datar, Edmonton-based head of New Harvest, a non-profit organization that funds and conducts research into lab-grown meat.
Isha Datar, Edmonton-based head of New Harvest, a non-profit organization that funds and conducts research into lab-grown meat.

From a virtually non-existent industry a few years ago, there are now more than 50 startup technology companies around the world currently working to produce lab-grown beef, pork and seafood, as well as a host of academic researchers who have devoted themselves to the field of “cellular agriculture.” Multi-national food giants like Tyson and Cargill have made strategic investments in lab-grown meat companies, as have Bill Gates and Richard Branson.

And some of the work in this fast-growing field is happening right here in Alberta. Datar — who has spent the last five years in New York City, serving as executive director of New Harvest, a non-profit institute that funds and conducts cellular agriculture research — has recently returned to Edmonton and incorporated her organization in Canada, keen to see the industry grow in her home country.

In Calgary, U of C postdoctoral fellow Cameron Semper has received a grant from New Harvest for his research into cell-based production of seafood. Semper is working to develop a new type of growth medium specifically tailored for fish cell culture — one that could make harvesting fish cells in the lab much more cost-effective than it currently is. His work could address one of the biggest problems preventing the wide-spread commercialization of lab-grown meat — the cost.

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“There’s a small part of the population that will pay a premium for this, but to get that core part of the market you want cost parity or cost competitiveness with what’s already on the market,” Semper said. “Consumers seem open to trying new things, as long as it meets what the consumer wants — which is, it has to taste decent and be an affordable price.”

Cameron Semper, post-doctoral fellow in Savchenko’s Labratory in University of Calgary, poses for a photo on Thursday, October 15, 2020.
Cameron Semper, post-doctoral fellow in Savchenko’s Labratory in University of Calgary, poses for a photo on Thursday, October 15, 2020. Photo by Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia

In 2013, when Dutch company Mosa Meat unveiled the world’s first cell-based hamburger, the patty cost $325,000 to make. Since then, companies have been making huge strides in bringing the cost of production down. Israel-based Future Meat Technologies, for example, has reduced its production costs for lab-grown meat to $150 per pound of chicken and $200 per pound for beef. The company says by 2022, it will be able to produce meat that costs less than $10 per pound.

Edmonton-based startup Future Fields is also working to lower the cost barrier to lab-grown meat. It has developed its own effective growth medium it says is significantly less expensive than what is currently used in most labs. While Future Fields is still in the R&D optimization stage, the company has signed contracts with four different lab-grown meat companies. Future Fields expects to start shipping some product before the end of the year.

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“It’s unlikely it (cultured meat) will ever take over the market completely,” said Future Fields co-founder Matt Anderson-Baron. “There are always going to be people who will prefer to get their meat from an animal. But it is anticipated to capture a steady-growing share of the market over time. The most recent estimates are that somewhere around 10 per cent of the entire meat market will be captured by cell-based meats over the next decade.”

In fact, Anderson-Baron said that based on projections from existing cellular agriculture companies that already have products in various stages of development, it will likely be possible to buy lab-grown beef, poultry or seafood in some form or another within the next 18 months.

“That being said, these will be extremely niche products, in limited release. In terms of seeing a cell-based meat product in the grocery store next to your conventional meat, that’s probably a little further out,” Anderson-Baron said. “But I would still say five to seven years.”

Matt Anderson-Baron, founder and lead scientist at Future Fields in the lab, an Edmonton startup researching in the field of cellular meat products in Edmonton, December 7, 2018.
Matt Anderson-Baron, founder and lead scientist at Future Fields in the lab, an Edmonton startup researching in the field of cellular meat products in Edmonton, December 7, 2018. Photo by Ed Kaiser/Postmedia

In addition to cost, other barriers to widespread adoption of lab-grown meat include the lack of a regulatory structure — the products must be certified safe to eat — as well as an “ick factor” that may be hard for some consumers to overcome. But given how veganism and plant-based protein have revolutionized the food world in just a few short years, making a bet on lab-grown meat doesn’t seem entirely foolish.

And that’s why Datar said she doesn’t want Alberta to miss the boat.

“I actually see the supply chains for cellular agriculture happening on the Canadian prairie provinces. There’s already a lot of protein production here, and the Prairie provinces create a lot of crops that go into processed foods,” she said. “I actually think there’s an opportunity here for Canada to be involved with the entire process from soup to nuts — from the very beginning basic materials all the way to the high-value products that get put on store shelves.”

astephenson@postmedia.com

Twitter: @AmandaMsteph

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